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On December 15, 2022, a rare space accident on the International Space Station nearly put American and Russian astronauts in danger.
On the same day, the Soyuz MS-22 spacecraft docked on the International Space Station and completed the docking mission for the outstanding Russian cosmonaut Oleg Nowitsky and the American cosmonaut Kristen Bach, but it almost caused a space tragedy in the dead of night.
The astronauts, who were resting, suddenly received a computer jingle from the space station, and found that the cooling system of the Soyuz spacecraft was malfunctioning, and the temperature in the cabin was soaring.
It was a total lunar eclipse, and the astronauts on the International Space Station were planning to open the hatch of the "Super Lunar Eclipse Hole" to observe this rare astronomical spectacle, but they were suddenly frightened at this time.
The astronaut quickly ran over, and sure enough, he found that when the "Super Lunar Eclipse Hole" was opened, because its glass was transparent, it was clear whether there was anything wrong with the shell of the spacecraft, and this look immediately found that there was a huge depression in the shell of the spacecraft, and then a closer look also found a hole with the boss, and streams of white gas were constantly coming out of it.
At first, the astronaut thought that something was wrong with the spacecraft, so he quickly uploaded the relevant information of the spacecraft to the ground control center, turned off the spacecraft's cooling system, and turned on the fan to cool down.
Unexpectedly, the temperature inside the spacecraft began to rise at a speed visible to the naked eye, and even reached 40 degrees Celsius in a short period of time, because the original cooling system of the space station was not particularly easy to use, so the temperature in the cabin also rose to close to 40 degrees Celsius, so that the cooling system of the space station will also be consumed in large quantities, and it will be very easy to be exhausted, and then it will become a tomb that rises in the sky.
Therefore, the astronaut continued to check the equipment inside the spacecraft, and began to confirm whether he had missed anything, and finally in less than half an hour, the astronaut finally found that there was a large amount of coolant leakage in the cooling device inside the spacecraft, and the remaining coolant on the spacecraft at this time was enough for less than half an hour.
1. U.S. and Russian astronauts are facing a crisis.
Soyuz spacecraft is a manned spacecraft developed by the Russian Space Agency, and it is also the only manned spacecraft in the world, which is generally docked by two to three Soyuz spacecraft on the International Space Station and provides temporary residence and shelter, but due to the limited docking capacity of the Soyuz spacecraft, the operation is complex and requires resources, so the International Space Station also has some very strict procedures and constraints for the docking and launch of spacecraft.
There is also a lot of supporting work between the Soyuz spacecraft and the ISS, for example, the cooling system used by the Soyuz spacecraft is part of the cooling, purifying and circulating air system on the ISS, it is precisely because the equipment on the Soyuz spacecraft is controlled by coolant to control the temperature, so when the Soyuz spacecraft and the ISS dock, the ISS will be connected with the cooling system of the Soyuz spacecraft to receive the coolant of the spacecraft to provide energy for the system on the space station. This process is accompanied by the heating and purification of the coolant on the spacecraft, which allows for periodic coolant changes after the Soyuz spacecraft has docked with the ISS.
This can not only ensure the normal operation of the internal equipment of the spacecraft, but also ensure that the ISS can operate for two or three months under the consumption of coolant, until the spacecraft and the space station complete docking, the astronauts of the Soyuz spacecraft will receive the clothing, water and other materials of the new stationing personnel from the spacecraft and the engineers on the space station, and then help the robot complete the replacement of the coolant at the "handover site" between the space station and the spacecraft, until the robot connects the coolant between the space station and the spacecraft. The astronauts have just officially entered the space station and begun a six-month scientific work, and this time the task of replacing the coolant was officially carried out by Russian cosmonaut Oleg Nowitsky and American cosmonaut Kristen Bach.
According to this process, the astronauts will directly enter the space station after completing the replacement of the coolant, but they did not expect that the cooling system between the space station and the spacecraft suddenly failed after they completed the regular replacement, so the connection between the Soyuz spacecraft and the International Space Station also appeared in a large amount of coolant leakage in a short period of time, and the cooling device inside the Soyuz spacecraft also lost a lot of coolant from the cooling system of the space station, and finally the temperature inside the spacecraft began to rise sharply. As a result, the interface between the spacecraft and the space station was frozen to death due to the freezing of the coolant, and could no longer be used for the delivery of coolant, so the cooling system between the Soyuz spacecraft and the space station could only rely on the remaining coolant inside the spacecraft to maintain operation.
Because of this sharp turn, Oleg Nowitsky, the cosmonaut of the Soyuz spacecraft, also quickly noticed that the temperature around him was rising rapidly that afternoon, so he quickly began to diagnose and repair the cooling device of the Soyuz spacecraft with the astronauts of the space station, and finally after a comprehensive inspection of the interior of the spacecraft, he soon found that the cooling system on the Soyuz spacecraft was malfunctioning, and the coolant was leaking a lot.
So he immediately took emergency measures, first turned off the equipment inside the spacecraft, and then turned on the fan inside the spacecraft, and used the fan to help the coolant circulate, so that the temperature inside the spacecraft was lowered, but in this way, the spacecraft had no way to receive coolant from the space station where the astronauts lived, and could only rely on the coolant inside the spacecraft to maintain its operation.
In this way, the connection between the spacecraft and the space station will be completely "degassed" in less than an hour.
After learning of this situation, the Russian Space Agency and NASA immediately began to study the connection between the spacecraft and the space station, hoping to find out the cause of the failure, and complete the replacement and repair of the coolant at the connection between the spacecraft and the space station, so they completed the coolant replacement of the connection in the early morning of the same day, and brought the remaining coolant on the Soyuz spacecraft to the space station. The astronauts of the Soyuz spacecraft also moved the coolant spacecraft to the cooling system on the space station, and finally a crisis was successfully resolved.
2. Russia agreed to allow American astronauts to board the SpaceX spacecraft.
However, it didn't take long for the ISS to encounter an even more serious crisis.
On the same day two months later, the Soyuz spacecraft completed the replacement and docking of coolant on the space station and the cooling system of the space station again, and this time the process was smoother than the last time, without any failures, but he didn't expect that when Oleg Nowits, the cosmonaut of the Soyuz spacecraft, was about to enter the spacecraft, he found that there was a huge depression on the shell of the Soyuz spacecraft, and there was a hole with a diameter of one centimeter in the depression. And there are puffs of white gas coming out of this hole.
So Oleg Nowitsky hurriedly informed the astronauts on the space station of the situation, and as soon as the news came out, the astronauts on the space station were shocked, and immediately rushed to the Soyuz spacecraft and Oleg Novitsky together uploaded the relevant information of the spacecraft to the ground control center, and turned off the spacecraft's cooling system, turned on the fan to help the spacecraft's coolant circulate, so as to avoid the depletion of the coolant, and it was because of their timely handling that there was no more serious accident in the end.
However, this incident still aroused the attention of the Russian space agency and NASA, so they conducted a comprehensive safety inspection of the Soyuz spacecraft on the International Space Station, and finally found that the Soyuz spacecraft was hit by a miniature meteoroid from space shortly after docking, and this impact not only caused a huge depression in the shell of the Soyuz spacecraft, but also caused the radiator of the Soyuz spacecraft's cooling system to be shattered, so there was a coolant leak. This incident also caused the ship's cooling system to malfunction during docking, which eventually caused the temperature inside the ship to rise.
Therefore, the Russian Space Agency and NASA analyzed the situation and proposed a solution to NASA for the repair of the radiator of the Soyuz spacecraft, but after learning of this situation, the United States seemed to refuse and then did not hear anything until the next morning to propose a new plan to the Russian space agency, which was to return American astronaut Christine Budch to Earth on SpaceX's Crew Dragon spacecraft.
This news immediately sparked speculation and doubts from the outside world, believing that the proposal of this plan was a very irresponsible decision, because the cooperation agreement of the International Space Station clearly stipulates that the safety of the astronauts of each country is the responsibility of their respective countries, and no matter what kind of spacecraft, as long as the spacecraft breaks down in space, the astronauts inside the spacecraft will not be in danger, so the Russian space agency learned that the United States is going to transfer Christine Bach from the Soyuz spacecraft to the Crew When he was on the Dragon spacecraft, he challenged NASA that NASA should be responsible for Kristen Butch's safety, and that for whatever reason, NASA should not unilaterally decide to return Kristen Butch to Earth on the Crew Dragon spacecraft.
However, NASA explained this, believing that according to the cooperation agreement of the International Space Station, the safety of astronauts in each country is the responsibility of each country, so the Russian space agency should propose to NASA for the repair of the Soyuz spacecraft's radiators and the replacement of the prepared coolant, and the Russian space agency also understood this after learning of NASA's explanation, and also let Kristen Bach board the Crew The reason for the return of the Dragon spacecraft to Earth was explained in detail to NASA